One Week in Ulaanbaatar

I have been here in Mongolia for a week already. The first week has been consumed with In-Country-Training and exploring Ulaanbaatar.

In an effort to slip seamlessly into the traditional Mongolian lifestyle, my first week has included a meals at Indian restaurant and Malaysian restaurants, a drink at the British Embassy bar (the ‘Steppe-Inn’ – geddit?!? - a useful place to know as it’s the only place to get a pint when alcohol is banned, as during the recent riots) and a pub quiz at Dave’s Bar (yes, it is run by a bloke called Dave).



On our second day we went to Terelj, out in the countryside. It is famous for turtle rock, which really does resemble a turtle. We had a true Mongolian barbeque and marvelled at the countryside, beautiful hills in a vast landscape.



UB is a dusty concrete city, with a run down ‘better-days’ feel to it – but not at all threatening. There seems to be a pragmatic approach to life, where aesthetics (in terms of buildings and urban landscape) is of little importance. The city is relatively small, surrounded by sprawling ger districts that stretch to the slopes of the hills and mountains that encircle the city. It still has a vast feel to it, with large main roads and wide pavements, yet you can easily cover one end of the city to the other by foot in a short space of time.

The Thursday before I arrived, a Mongolian won their first ever Olympic gold medal (in Judo). Apparently the celebrations were great, with the president giving a karaoke rendition of the national anthem in the main square while completely sozzled. They have just picked up another in boxing, so hopefully tonight will be just as raucous, and I can experience Mongolian celebrations.

The traffic here stops for nothing and no-one. Pedestrian crossings serve no purpose except to serve as gathering points for people to cross the road en-masse. Safety in numbers. The key when crossing is avoid the British dithering technique (one foot forward: ‘I’m going’, foot back: ‘oh, he might not stop’) and put the head down and march – they will go around you. I can also confirm that in those ‘Oops, I miss-judged the traffic’ moments, the buses at least, will actually (and eventually) stop – but only after being entirely satisfied that they have delivered a brown-trouser moment.

I have heard a theory that drivers still have a ‘herder’s mentality’, thinking they are still on a horse and another (more plausible) reason that they drive like they would on country roads/dust tracks.

By far the safest method is the tried and trusted international road-crossing technique - to latch onto locals who look like they know what they’re doing and walk in time with them (preferable standing the other side of the on-coming traffic!). It’s got me through the first week unscathed!

We (8 new volunteers – four English and four from the Philippines) are currently going through In-Country-Training with VSO. One week down, two to go.

The training includes language lessons at the Bridge School every morning – which is going slowly – I thought I was doing quite well until two (happy-)drunks decided to have a conversation with me on the bus yesterday and I couldn’t remember a word. All part of the experience, I guess! My slight concern is that I will be working out of the VSO programme office where everyone speaks perfect English (and me being lazy I’ll probably just end up talking in English), rather than being at a placement where you have to use the language to communicate with colleagues. Luckily VSO will refund continued language lessons after the training – which I intend to do.

The rest of the training includes a country briefing, safety and medical issues, talks on the programme areas VSO work on here and other general info.

Predictably the main focus of the safety and medical briefing covered the cold winters. -40 C is going to be interesting! The snow in the city is very fine and the country director referred to it ‘diamond dust’. Sounds amazing.

My main concern is the manholes. The covers have all been removed for either/or/both: To be sold for scrap metal, or (more seriously) to create access for homeless people who live down there. It seems hard to believe, but while waiting around for other volunteers a man just lowered himself into one, saying hello to us as though walking through his front door. The heating in the apartment blocks in the city is controlled centrally (it is turned on and off at set dates in October and March) and the pipes pass under the manholes – so people live down there to stay warm. Mongolia is no place to live on the streets in winter. To keep in some of the warmth, the holes are often covered in cardboard, and when covered in ice and snow are apparently impossible to spot. The winters will be fun!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Mongolian Women Farmers’ Association (a local project supported by a VSO volunteer) in Bayankhoshuu – one of the peri-urban ger districts in UB. They provide training to people on how to grow their own vegetables. The training is timed for the right times for growing – they will have a session on preparing soil and people will go home and prepare the soil, and come back a week later for the next session. The plot they have is beautiful, full of sunflowers and vegetables, right in the middle of the ger district. It was an inspiring visit.

I am itching to start work (first day – Monday 8th September) and really get immersed in the lifestyle and culture. The trip to the Mongolian Women Farmers’ Association has really enthused me about being here, being involved with VSO and working with local projects. Roll on the next two years!